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South Grove Trail

The Best of Calaveras Big Trees

Trail on Big Trees Creek, Beaver Creek in Calaveras Big Trees State Park, Stanislaus NF, Calaveras South Grove Natural Preserve, Sierra Nevada near Arnold, CA

Typically for a lower-elevation sequoia grove, South Calaveras Grove is densely wooded and has a dense understory of dogwoods. The grove has a low density of sequoias; over 3 miles of hiking in the grove, you might see only about 30 or 40 big trees, most of them some distance from the trail. It’s essentially a normal Sierra pine forest where you encounter a big tree every five or ten minutes. The sequoias are fine-looking examples, though, massive and with the characteristically pinkish, stout and perfectly cylindrical trunks that don’t taper as they rise through the canopy.

Turn right at a Y-intersection, following a sign that says “South Grove Loop Trail”. The trail almost immediately crosses a little creek and begins to climb a hillside. Here the first sequoias appear, getting off to a great start with a massive tree right by the side of the trail. In all the hillside has a few dozen sequoias, of which maybe six big trees are prominently visible right next to the trail, culminating in two mammoth trees near the trail’s highest point.